Regarding the Tisza Party’s document on energy changeover that was leaked on Monday, Mr Orbán said this is their programme, what is laid down in the document is the position they publicly advocate for. The starting point of the whole thing is that a compromise must be reached with Brussels and we must therefore accept a number of decisions adopted by Brussels, he laid down.
He mentioned as an example that we must detach ourselves from Russian energy which Tisza politician István Kapitány “said with his own mouth.” Those who want to reach an agreement with Brussels must under any circumstances cut themselves off from cheap Russian oil, and Tisza knows this, he stressed.
He said Hungary – and the Slovaks a little bit – continues to insist on maintained access to cheap Russian energy which is contrary to the interests of all the other countries, they openly attack him at every council meeting of the prime ministers and the Commission demands that we give this up.
The Prime Minister said there are protected prices at petrol stations and there are reduced household energy prices today because the government – with its mandate and the Hungarian people’s support – is able to say no. The question is whether there is any other actor, other than themselves, who is able to say no; in his view, there is not. He himself can only say no because he is receiving continued support from within the country and because they have already left the European People’s Party where this was the party line to follow.
Mr Orbán said he is not bound by anything, he belongs to the Patriots who attack every single element of the EU’s energy policy, including this one, he pointed out.
No one in Hungary other than them is able to say no to this, he confirmed. It is not just that it is a pre-condition of coming to a compromise with Brussels that Hungary should surrender cheap energy, but it is also that Tisza deems this the right thing to do. They are of the opinion that it is best if Hungary is detached from cheap Russian energy, he stated.
He also said in Brussels there are not only overarching political considerations, but there is also a plan for pocketing the Hungarians against which he has been fighting for years. He said he knows how the opponents – Brussels, Ukraine and Kiev – are doing this and also knows how to fight against it. However, their political opponent does not know it, and according to the Prime Minister, they would not even want to fight against this, “in fact, they’re part of the plan of pocketing the Hungarians,” he observed.
Mr Orbán highlighted: there are three channels through which they want to rob the Hungarians. The first one is energy, a changeover, detachment from Russian energy and changing over to the more expensive “Shell-type” Western European and American energy.
The second one is that Hungary, too, must take part in the financing of the war in Ukraine. This has multiple forms: lending and the adoption of the next seven-year budget of the European Union currently in the making which is planning to send an inordinate amount of money to Ukraine. Previously, this money was sent to Central Europe, including to Hungary, in the form of agricultural subsidies or as cohesion funds provided for disadvantaged regions.
The third thing with which they want to plunder the Hungarians would be about changing the rules – the bank levy, the energy tax and the retail tax – with the aid of which in the past 16 years they have taken HUF 15,000 billion away from large corporations and have built it into the Hungarian family support system.
There are these three major plundering channels, these must be sealed, Mr Orbán laid down. He also recalled: “there was a referendum or party vote” in the Tisza Party about Ukraine’s EU membership, and there, they voted for it. Those who want to form a pro-Ukraine government – and in the party vote, it was clearly revealed that Tisza is a pro-Ukraine party – cannot say anything other than that they want to harm the Russians, and therefore, they are prepared to detach Hungary from Russian oil even at the expense of harming their own nation, Mr Orbán said.
He added: in the past 4 to 8 years, he has not seen a single European leader who was pro-Ukraine and did not want to immediately detach their country from Russian energy, “these two go together.”
Regarding the closure of the Druzhba pipeline, the Prime Minister said when no oil is coming from Russia via Ukraine, that is the gravest threat a country can face. Additionally, a war broke out in the Middle East about which the Ukrainians cannot have known when they shut the Druzhba pipeline down, but which has further aggravated the situation. He added: it is an existential issue for a nation that imports energy to have access to those imports, in this case, to imported crude oil.
Zelenskyy is talking about all sorts of different dates for the resumption of oil shipments – all of which fall beyond the April elections – because he believes that the forces supported by him will win, and therefore, there will be a pro-Ukraine government and never in this life will they have to reopen the Druzhba pipeline, the Prime Minister pointed out.
He later observed: if the government parties win the elections, there will be oil coming through the Druzhba pipeline.
Regarding the plans for the privatisation of the oil company Mol and the energy company MVM, Mr Orbán recalled: in 2010, he had to go to the Russian president because the Gyurcsány-Bajnai Governments sold them Mol’s last 25 per cent state-held stake, and then there was a serious conversation which “could be described in many ways, but not as polite or amicable in the least.”
Hungary gave this money back and the parties concluded an agreement; this is how the Paks development came into the picture. Despite this, it is a fact that the left-wing governments sold this 25 per cent share package, he stressed.
“In our heads, there is a state-regulated energy market, while in our opponent’s heads there is an energy system that is regulated by the market,” the Prime Minister stated. Mr Orbán highlighted: the liberals and the Left have always believed that the Hungarian energy market or the Hungarian energy system must be arranged and operated on the basis of market-oriented rules, and it is contrary to this concept that two of the market players, and at that the two largest, Mol and MVM, are in state ownership. The opposition has always said that the correct structure of the Hungarian energy system is one which is dominated by private market players, the Prime Minister added.
Mr Orbán also spoke about the fact that Hungary’s energy imports earlier amounted to EUR 7 billion on average. If the Paks 2 project were further forward, we would have to spend less, he observed. When the system of Brussels sanctions hit us in 2022, that moment the seven-billion-euro import cost increased to 17 billion. This means that EUR 10 billion left the Hungarian economy, the equivalent of approximately 150 kilometres of motorway and approximately 40 brand-new hospitals, he pointed out.
However, he laid down: if the economy continues to work normally, the oil business does not turn upside down and Hungary renders an average performance, what the economy is currently providing for the people – the fourteenth monthly pension, lifelong tax exemption for mothers, the fixed three per cent housing credit programme for young people – is all sustainable.
In response to the observation that according to Tisza, these welfare measures can be maintained if they bring the funds Hungary is entitled to back from Brussels, Mr Orbán said Tisza’s politicians have never seen a government from inside, they are completely inexperienced, they do not know what they are talking about. The funds brought back home from Brussels cannot be used for these purposes, he pointed out.
Regarding police captain Bence Szabó’s incident he said he sees a simple story: it is a frequently recurring theme also in films that someone quits the system, believing that they are in possession of some great discovery, but it turns out that they are no hero, only a dupe, that is all that happened.
He believed that there was an intelligence operation against a political party, he saw a political scandal, and it turned out that he was involved in a counter-intelligence operation under way, and he was merely performing tasks connected to that counter-intelligence operation.
He also spoke about the fact that for a long time now, Ukraine has installed spies, informers and agents not only in politics, but also in other areas with an impact on political power, and is spending serious amounts of black money not only in Hungary, but also elsewhere. This is interference, they are protesting against this and are tracking it.
He added: that two Ukrainian IT operatives have been installed in the Tisza Party does not mean “that we’re interested in the Tisza Party; we’re interested in Ukrainian spies wherever they go.”
As to how much of an international practice this is, he said Hungary does not stand out in any respect. Mr Orbán added: the Ukrainians are keeping tabs of every Hungarian whom they believe may be valuable for Ukraine. For instance, people who can be influenced and reached upon a referendum when we decide on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.
Mr Orbán said it is absolutely certain that the Ukrainians recruited IT engineers into the Tisza Party, and that they developed an IT mobilisation system for Tisza for which Tisza did not pay; they paid their dues via other channels. He said by contrast we do not have any cooperation with the Russians, and there is absolutely no fact whatsoever beyond that “Putin is a cloven-hoofed devil and I’m a little devil or bogeyman.”
On the other side, there are clear facts, he stated. The Prime Minister said it is nothing short of scandalous that the Hungarian foreign minister’s phone calls were tapped which – in his words – they must deal with. He repeated: we have nothing to do with the Russo-Ukrainian war, it is s fratricidal war between two Slavic peoples. Our business is to help the Ukrainians by not destroying ourselves in the process.
He recalled that when the Ukrainians were fleeing the war, we provided shelter for everyone, we provided food for everyone, we provided jobs for those who decided to stay and opened Ukrainian schools for their children, despite the fact that in Transcarpathia the right to education in the mother tongue is being continually curtailed at the detriment of the Hungarians.
“Hungary must stop here, we don’t owe anything to anyone,” he stated.
Mr Orbán also spoke about the fact that the sanctions imposed on Russia were contrary to Hungary’s national interests. Due to the sanctions, we are losing a great many investments, our access to Russian oil and gas is being restricted, and we must pay more for energy.
In the context of the war in Iran, he said the President of the United States is doing what he believes to be best for his own country’s interests. He took the view: Russia had not received as much help in the past decade as in the form of the US attack on Iran. “Now, the Russians can just sit back and order a coffee,” he said.
The European strategy has failed, Russia is able to sell its own energy carriers to the world much more easily than before the war in Iran, the Prime Minister pointed out.
Regarding rumours that Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó kept the Russian foreign minister informed about EU discussions, Mr Orbán said it is Mr Szijjártó’s duty to liaise with the foreign minister of every country that is important for Hungary. “These include the Russian, the American, and the Chinese foreign ministers. We’re in contact not only with the Europeans, we also maintain ties with the Turks and the Arabs,” he laid down.
Regarding the law on the criticism of the Benes Decrees, the Prime Minister said we do not agree with any legal document on collective guilt, including this one. “We must wait and see what will happen, whether this law has caused any actual legal injury, and as soon as there is the first injured, the first Hungarian being punished for this, we will take the firmest possible action,” he pointed out.
Concerning the elections, he said ever since 1990, everyone has always accepted the results in Hungary, or if they did not, they lived together with them, “this is a calm country, and will be calm also after the elections.”
As to how many mandates he expects, the Prime Minister said he asked members of the electorate for three million votes. He begins every election campaign in such a way that “if there is a simple majority that doesn’t require a coalition government, we must be grateful for that to the electorate; whatever is beyond that is God’s gift, and we can go upward from there, to two thirds and even further.”
That according to some pollsters the turnout will be above 90 per cent, Mr Orbán said in Hungary when there is a very tense political situation and atmosphere, there is normally a 71 to 72 per cent turnout, “this is how it’s been so far, why would it be any different this time?”
We are preparing for victory, the Prime Minister stressed, adding that they are talking about how to govern after 12 April, rather than about what to do when they find themselves in opposition.
Mr Orbán said the number one priority is for Hungary to stay out of the war and to protect the people’s money. “On 12 April, we must protect what the Hungarians have and the money they’re entitled to, and they must not be allowed to be pocketed because this is what the story has been about for many long years. We have not allowed the Hungarians to be pocketed since 2010,” he said.
In answer to the question of whether he can envisage himself in opposition after the elections, Mr Orbán said members of the electorate will give an answer to that question. “I do have some say in what I’m going to do in the next four years, but regarding the essence, it’s not for me, but for the electors to decide,” he said.
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